beyond ArtLess

Chris Gleason is the Arts and Creativity Consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. He is the 2017 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year and the first Wisconsin teacher to be named a finalist for National Teacher of the Year in 50 years. Chris is a 2021 Horace Mann award recipient by the NEA Foundation, as well as a Top 50 Finalist for the 2021 Global Teacher Prize sponsored by the Varkey Foundation and UNESCO. He was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2022 and 2017 GRAMMY Music Educator of the Year Award. In 2019 he was selected as an NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow and traveled to South Africa. Mr. Gleason is the founder and organizer of the Beyond The Notes Music Festival Inc. in Wisconsin Dells that has to date inspired more than 40,000 young musicians and 75 future music educators.